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The Gospel of Judas and the Qarara Codices Some Preliminary Observations

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The Gospel of Judas and the Qarara Codices Some Preliminary Observations Tyndale Bulletin 58.1 (2007) 1-23. THE GOSPEL OF JUDAS AND THE QARARA CODICES SOME PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS Peter M. Head Summary The recent publication of the Coptic text of the Gospel of Judas has raised a number of questions about the nature, history, date and importance of this ancient gospel. By paying close attention to the context of the find, the other literature within the same codex, and the question of the date, both for the Coptic codex and the original composition, this article helps locate the Gospel of Judas into its proper historical and theological context of the mid-to-late second century. 1. Introduction The Gospel of Judas, although probably originally composed in Greek, is extant only in a Coptic translation, discovered in the 1970s and recently published to considerable fanfare and publicity in April 2006.1 1 An English translation and several essays are published in R. Kasser, M. Meyer & G. Wurst (eds), The Gospel of Judas from Codex Tchacos (Washington: National Geographic, 2006). A provisional transcription of the Coptic text is available on the National Geographic website (pending the publication of the critical edition of the whole codex): ‘The Gospel of Judas: Coptic Text established by Rodolphe Kasser & Gregor Wurst’ (Washington: National Geographic, April 2006): accessible from http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lostgospel/index.html (this website also has a range of other material relevant to the study of the gospel). The ‘official’ story of the discovery and abuse of the manuscript is told in H. Krosney, The Lost Gospel: The Quest for the Gospel of Judas Iscariot (Washington: National Geographic, 2006). An additional source of information, especially including the full text of S. Emmel’s 1983 report on the codex, is J. M. Robinson, The Secrets of Judas: The Story of the Misunderstood Disciple and his Lost Gospel (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2006). The first of a long line of follow-up books was B. D. Ehrman, The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot: A New Look at Betrayer and Betrayed (New York: Oxford UP, 2006). 2 TYNDALE BULLETIN 58.1 (2007) The publicity was, predictably enough, of the ‘controversial Gospel suppressed by the early church challenges traditional teachings’ type, with equally predictable responses from representatives of those ‘traditional teachings’.2 The point of the publicity was equally pred- ictable: money. In a strange quirk of history the publication of the text mirrored in various ways the history of the manuscript itself: the codex in question was physically damaged in a marketing quest for subs- tantial sums of money; now, in the marketing of the published form of the text, our understanding of the document has been damaged due to the deliberate sensationalising of the marketable product.3 In view of the publicity this manuscript has generated, and the potential importance of the find for our understanding of early Chris- tianity, it is all the more important to take our time to investigate the manuscript closely to see what can be learned from it – even though this can only be in a preliminary manner since the promised scholarly publication has not yet been forthcoming and the information available is quite incomplete (we do not have access to the manuscript itself or even to complete photographs).4 I am not going to bother disputing with every outlandish opinion I have ever heard about the Gospel of Judas. I am, however, going to make several points that I have not heard being made about this manuscript. My guiding principle, in this as in other explorations, will be F. J. A. Hort’s observation in a related discipline, that ‘knowledge of documents should precede final 2 E.g. in the UK The Mail on Sunday splashed the story on March 12th 2006 with the absurd claim that this was the ‘greatest archaeological discovery of all time’ (hint: try Googling this phrase and consider the number and significance of the other, numerous, claimants). For sane responses see N. T. Wright, Judas and the Gospel of Jesus: Understanding a Newly Discovered Ancient Text (London: SPCK, 2006), and S. J. Gathercole, ‘The Gospel of Judas’ Exp. Times 118.5 (2007): 209-15; cf. his The Gospel of Judas (Oxford: OUP, 2007 forthcoming); also announced: S. E. Porter & G. L. Heath, The Lost Gospel of Judas: Separating Fact from Fiction (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007). 3 It is worth noting that some of the scholars involved in the project have complained about the potential for sensationalisation. Steve Emmel (a member of the National Geographic Society’s ‘Codex Project Advisory Panel’) is quoted as saying: ‘there are some people involved in the project who do not seem to understand much of anything except stupid sensationalism, and so I can certainly not guarantee that the publication of the text and translation will not be accompanied by some phoney hoopla’ (from Robinson, The Secrets of Judas: 166; cf. also the ET of an interview with Emmel in pp. 174-75: ‘the current owners are out for sensation’). 4 I am grateful to Tze-Ming Quek for an invitation to address the St John’s Theological Society on this subject on 2nd November 2006 and for comments and encouragement that came from that evening. HEAD: Gospel of Judas 3 judgement upon readings’.5 In other words, before an examination of the readings, or the content of the Gospel of Judas, we must learn more about the document itself, its make-up, context, and content. In this way we shall also learn more about its historical setting and importance. 2. The Discovery and the Four Qarara Codices According to the account of the discovery of the codex reported by its early owners, the codex containing the Gospel of Judas was discovered during an illegal ‘excavation’ of a tomb near Jebel Qarara, 60 km north of Al Minya on the right bank of the Nile in Middle Egypt (or 8 km south of Oxyrhynchus).6 This codex was apparently not alone, but was found in a limestone box with three other codices.7 The four codices were: a fourth- or fifth-century papyrus codex containing the book of Exodus in Greek; a papyrus codex containing Coptic gnostic material (Codex Tchacos which includes the Gospel of Judas); a fourth- or fifth- century papyrus codex containing the letters of Paul in Coptic; and a portion of a mathematical treatise in Greek: Metrodological Tractate. Neither the collection as a whole nor the individual manuscripts have survived intact, indeed several have been deliberately split into portions by dealers anxious for a sale. Leaving aside Codex Tchacos just for a moment, it is possible to trace some information about the ancient and contemporary status of the other three codices: piecing together the available information suggests: • The Greek Exodus codex was a papyrus codex originally containing approximately 88 leaves (measuring approximately 26 x 16 cm), each with a single column of around 32 lines of text. The text is written in a fine biblical majuscule hand of the fourth or fifth 5 B. F. Westcott & F. J. A. Hort, The New Testament in the Original Greek: Introduction (London: Macmillan & Co., 1881, 1896 reprint): 31. 6 Krosney, The Lost Gospel: 9-12 provides a narrative; the basic details are also found in the account given to Stephen Emmel in 1983, see Robinson, The Secrets of Judas: 120. 7 This material was certainly together in 1983 when they were examined by Emmel and other scholars (see Emmel’s report in Robinson, The Secrets of Judas: 117-120, and further details given on 91-102; and in Krosney, The Lost Gospel: 105-20). Emmel reports the claim of the then owner that all four manuscripts had been discovered together (Robinson, The Secrets of Judas: 120); the same claim, presumably from the same source is implicit in Krosney’s account in The Lost Gospel: 9-12. 4 TYNDALE BULLETIN 58.1 (2007) century, and includes normal features such as nomina sacra.8 The text itself appears to be very important, exhibiting independence from the other major early texts of Exodus, which makes the dis- membered and scattered state of the manuscript rather disappointing, to say the least.9 Seven fragments have recently been published by Desilva and Adams.10 An almost complete page is in the Bienecke library (P.CtYBR inv. 4475).11 Five leaves containing Exodus 4:17– 6:12 and 7:12-21 are present in the Schøyen Collection (MS 187).12 • The current whereabouts of the codex of Paul’s letters in Coptic is unknown so consequently little is known of the manuscript and its text. Most of our information comes from Emmel’s report in 1983: a fourth- or fifth-century papyrus codex in Sahidic dialect comprising leaves of approximately 24 x 16 cm containing a single column of text outlined with pink chalk. At least one part of the leather binding for the cover was present. Pagination up to 115 was observed among the complete leaves (with most of it representing more numerous smaller fragments). Emmel identified text from Hebrews, Colossians and 1 Thessalonians.13 The anonymous and undated report records that there are colophons present for those three and also adds 8 An undated and anonymous report which seems to have been prepared with a view to the market value of the codices (from perhaps as early as the 1980s) described the unfortunate state of this manuscript: ‘The fragments are wrapped in a bundle of paper and include several large sections of two quires (c. 30 leaves per quire) and hundreds of fragments varying in size from a nearly full leaf to a thumbnail.’ This also reported: ‘Page numbers survive on a few pieces, ranging as high as 141’ (http://www.tertullian.
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